Cash-strapped Association of Indian Universities ask athletes to pay for Chengdu World University Games

Sahil, a promising athlete of the Punjabi University in Patiala, has been running from pillar to post to arrange funds to compete at the rescheduled 2021 Chengdu World University Games to be held this year from July 28 in China.

The Association of Indian Universities (AIU), which is responsible for conducting All India Inter University sports meetings and sending national squads to compete at the World University Games, refused to fund the trip. The cash-strapped authority doesn’t have funds, and the individual athletes are making arrangements on their own.

“To provide funds to eligible players to compete at the World University Games is the prerogative of the respective universities and not the AIU,” an official of the AIU said on condition of anonymity.

Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KITT) in Odisha has been given a mandate to write to respective universities, whose athletes were selected to pay Rs 1,87,000 towards expenditure, including sports kit to travel to China.

Sahil, an undergraduate second-year student of the Punjabi University, Patiala in Punjab was selected for the Men’s 20km. He won gold in the Men’s 20km at the third edition of the Khelo India University Games held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh in May. His winning time was 1:27.51 seconds.

According to Sahil, he made arrangements for 50 per cent of the money (Rs 94,000 app), while he was waiting for the Punjabi University sports department to pay the remaining amount.

“There has been no response from the university sports department yet,” Sahil told Sportskeeda over the phone from Patiala.

“A student who doesn’t have financial resources, it will be a challenging task to arrange a huge amount,” Sahil added.

Sahil’s parents passed away when he was toddler and was adopted by his relative.

Initially, Sahil started with the 800m event, but wasn’t successful and then he switched to race walking in 2017. He joined the Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS) in 2019 and shifted to Patiala from Jalandhar. Under the PIS scheme, he is provided daily diet and training.

“I don’t have a single penny. If the Punjabi University doesn’t support me financially, it will be difficult for me to compete at the World University Games,” Sahil said.